Federal election 2010: Queensland on the ground

Last week, I put up a post at our main site (temporarily not viewable because of site maintenance), seeking readers’ contributions about what’s actually happening on the ground in Queensland.

Peter Brent provides a good summary of why this state is so important to the outcome. Half of the seats are held by margins of 5% or less, federal Labor has little in the way of a solid base, swings are often more marked than elsewhere in the country, and up to 10 seats are in play.

Some polling has shown Labor in danger of losing enough seats in Queensland to endanger its overall majority, though Dennis Atkins is right to say that the swings are very patchy. Queensland is a demographically and geographically diverse state, a point made well by Jason Wilson in an article on the key seats in Central and North Queensland.

Wilson, writing of the national media missing the issues and local campaigns in regional electorates, also observes:

This is the problem with a travelling pack – flying to a new destination each day, they don’t always know what’s at stake at each whistle-stop.

5 comments on “Federal election 2010: Queensland on the ground”

I commented on the earlier election leaflet thread about the propaganda I’ve had from Teresa Gambaro, the former Liberal MP for Petrie and now LNP candidate for Brisbane.

The seat has always been held by Labor, but has usually been hotly contested.

It’s become less safe in the redistribution, losing Labor voting areas around Mitchelton and Ashgrove to Ryan and north of Stafford Road to Lilley, but gaining blue ribbon Clayfield, Ascot and Hamilton.

It’s also the seat Andrew Bartlett is contesting for The Greens.

I’ve now had two things from Gambaro, but have seen no evidence of campaign activity from Labor’s Arch Bevis and Andrew Bartlett. The bit of the electorate I live in is not safe for either party, judging on past booth results, so I’m a little surprised the ALP and Greens are slow out of the starting blocks.

john, not sure what you mean by “a solid majority”. The Labor primary vote has dipped below 40% in some elections. I would be surprised if Labor lost Brisbane, but the redistribution is unfavourable, and the seat now contains suburbs with some of the highest property values in the city, and other areas which have moved into that bracket (ie New Farm).

The most reliably Labor areas around Mitchelton and Enoggera are now no longer in the electorate.